SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A woman who was snatched from a bus stop as an 11-year-old child in 1991 turned up at a California police station after 18 mysterious years, and a convicted sex offender and his wife were arrested in the kidnapping.Jaycee Lee Dugard was reunited with her mother, who was overjoyed to learn the daughter she feared dead was actually alive.
It was not immediately clear how Dugard spent the 18 years since she was abducted as a blond, ponytailed child outside her South Lake Tahoe home.
Police said she recently walked into a Northern California police station with Phillip Garrido, 58, one of her alleged captors. He and his wife Nancy Garrido, 54, were arrested for investigation of kidnapping and conspiracy on Wednesday, police said.
Phillip Garrido is also being held for investigation of rape by force, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor and sexual penetration, said Jimmie Lee, a spokesman for the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Department.
Phillip Garrido was sentenced to 50 years in prison and served nearly 11 years in Nevada for a federal kidnapping conviction, said Suzanne Pardee, a spokeswoman for Nevada state prisons.
He also served seven months concurrently for a conviction for rape by force or fear at the medium-security Northern Nevada Correctional Center. Pardee said Garrido was paroled in August 1988.
A public records search showed Garrido as president of a company called God’s Desire.
Dugard was in good health when she came into a San Francisco Bay area police station and revealed her name.
“We’re 99 percent sure it’s her,” said sheriff’s Lt. Les Lovell of the El Dorado Sheriff’s Department, who was a detective assigned to help investigate the kidnapping in 1991. DNA tests were being conducted.
California corrections officials said they called in Phillip Garrido for questioning Wednesday after receiving a report that he was seen with two small children at the University of California, Berkeley.
Two children and two adult women accompanied him to the station.
“The diligent questioning and follow-up by the parolee’s agent of record led to Garrido revealing his kidnapping of the adult female,” the department said in a statement. “It was further revealed by Garrido that she was Jaycee Lee Dugard, and that the children were his.”
It was not immediately clear who was the mother of the children.
FBI spokesman Joe Schadler said the woman was reunited with her mother Thursday morning. He declined to provide details.
The suspects were being held in El Dorado County. Jail records showed Nancy Garrido was being held on $4.195 million bail and Phillip Garrido was not eligible for bail because he is a parolee.
A house in the city of Antioch where the Garridos live was cordoned off with police tape as it was searched by FBI agents and the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department.
Neighbor Helen Boyer, 78, described the Garridos as nice and friendly and said they cared for Phillip Garrido’s elderly mother.
“If I needed something, they would be the first I would call on,” Boyer said.
Dugard’s stepfather, Carl Probyn, 60, said he was overwhelmed by the news that Dugard was alive. He said for years he had done everything he could to help find her, especially because he knew suspicion had fallen on him.
“It broke my marriage up. I’ve gone through hell, I mean I’m a suspect up until yesterday,” he told The Associated Press at his home in Orange, Calif. “I’m the last person to see her.”
Witnesses reported that a vehicle with two people drove up to Dugard and abducted her while her stepfather watched on June 10, 1991.
Probyn said he saw someone reach out and grab her before the car sped away.
“As soon as I saw the door fly open, the driver’s door, I jumped on my mountain bike and I tried to get to the top of the hill but I had no energy. I rode back down and yelled at my neighbor, 911!” he recalled.
Probyn said his wife, from whom he is separated, was devastated by the kidnapping. He said for 10 years after the crime, she would take a week off work at Christmas and on the anniversary of the abduction and spend the time crying at home.
The case attracted national attention and was featured on TV’s “America’s Most Wanted,” which broadcast a composite drawing of a suspect seen in the car.
Probyn eventually lost hope that he would ever see his stepdaughter alive. He said he was struggling to understand why Dugard didn’t come forward earlier.
“I have a million questions, but I’m just delighted,” he said.
Lovell said investigators have been working the case consistently since the abduction and new leads had surfaced over time.
“You bet it’s a surprise. This is not the normal resolution to a kidnapping,” he said.
Associated Press Writers Paul Elias, Terry Collins and Marcus Wohlsen in San Francisco, Gillian Flaccus in Orange, Calif., Brooke Donald in Antioch, Calif., Martin Griffith in Reno, Nev., and Don Thompson in Sacramento also contributed to this report.

Argentina's Supreme Court decriminalised the small-scale use of marijuana, opening the way for a shift in the country's drug-fighting policies to focus on traffickers instead of users.

The high court ruled it unconstitutional to prosecute cases involving the private use of marijuana.

Elsewhere in Latin America, Colombia and Mexico have already decriminalized the possession of small amounts of drugs. Brazil and Ecuador are looking at an initiative to legalize some drug use.

"Each adult is free to make lifestyle decisions without the intervention of the state," the court's ruling said. It did not set a weight limit for what constitutes small-scale and the court said it was not decriminalizing all drug use.

The decision struck down a 2006 lower court ruling involving eight people sentenced to jail terms for carrying marijuana cigarettes.

"Behavior in private is legal, as long as it doesn't constitute clear danger," Supreme Court President Ricardo Lorenzetti said. "The state cannot establish morality."

Elias Neuman, a criminology professor at the University of Buenos Aires, said Tuesday's ruling "could be a step forward" in legalising the personal use of other drugs.

"It is now clear what drug dealers do is sell people on drugs, and not the other way around," he said.

The Argentine government had urged the high court to review drug possession laws, seeking to redirect state spending on pursuing dealers and drug treatment instead of what officials called expensive prosecutions of thousands of smaller cases.

The ruling drew criticism from Argentine officials in the Roman Catholic Church and families of drug users who worry it will lead to increased drug trafficking.

A household survey showed an increase in the rate of marijuana use in Argentina. Consumption among the population aged 12 to 64 rose to 6.0% in 2006 from 1.9% in 2004, reversing a previous downward trend.

Marijuana use in Argentina is now at levels similar to those reported in western and central Europe, according to the latest United Nations World Drug Report.

Argentina, whose population is less than a quarter that of Brazil, is Latin America's biggest cocaine user, according to the UN report.

Several high-profile police raids and murders linked to drug gangs have exposed the country's status as a transit point for Andean cocaine bound for Europe and a source of precursor chemicals used to make drugs such as methamphetamine.

Police are hunting a group of women they believe are responsible for an attack on a man during a night out.
Today detectives released CCTV footage showing six female suspects, all believed to be in their twenties.
The 38-year-old, who was left with a broken ankle and stiletto-shaped wound on his head, had been on a night out with his girlfriend at the time of the unprovoked assault in Liverpool.

Unprovoked attack: Detectives released CCTV footage showing six female suspects, all believed to be in their twenties

The victim can be seen sitting with his girlfriend on Stanley Street, near the Eleanor Rigby statue, at around 2.30am on July 19.
The footage shows the suspects approach from Whitehall before words are exchanged.
The women then launch into a group attack, punching and kicking the man.
The victim now faces months off work due to his injuries, which included a broken ankle that had to be pinned by doctors.

Peruvian police expecting to find a shipment of cocaine hidden in a crate holding two live turkeys were surprised to discover the drug surgically implanted inside the birds.
Acting on a tip, officers stopped a Turismo Ejecutivo SRL bus outside the city of Tarapoto in the central jungle state of San Martin.
Police were puzzled when they found the turkeys in the crate, but didn't find the cocaine, Tarapoto's anti-drug police chief, Otero Gonzalez, told the Associated Press. They then noticed that the two turkeys were bloated.
"Lifting up the feathers of the bird, in the chest area, police detected a handmade seam," he said.
A veterinarian extracted 11 oval-shaped plastic capsules containing 1.9 kilograms of cocaine from one turkey and 17 capsules with 2.9 kilograms from the other, he said.
Both turkeys survived the removal.
Police were searching for whoever sent the shipment from Juanjui to Tarapoto, which is on a smuggling route from Peru's east Andean coca-producing valleys to northern coastal cities, where it is sold to Mexican and Colombian traffickers.
Gangs often use human couriers who swallow cocaine to sneak it across borders but it is unusual to use animals. In 2005, Colombian police found a total of 3 kilograms of heroin sewn into the bellies of six puppies during a raid on a veterinarian clinic.

LUCKNOW: A doctor has been booked for allegedly raping a 23-year-old Dalit woman in Uttar Pradesh's Mau district, police said on Tuesday.

O N Verma, who owns and runs a private nursing home in Sahadatpur locality of Mau, allegedly raped the Dalit woman inside the operation theatre (OT) on Monday.

"The victim, who hails from Azamgarh, on Sunday came to Verma's nursing home along with her mother for treatment of gynaecological problems. At that time, the woman was admitted in the general ward. A lady doctor of the nursing home was treating her," police inspector J P Tiwari said.

He said when Verma was on a routine inspection on Monday, he went to meet the young woman to inquire about her condition. "After coming out of the ward, Verma told the woman's mother that her daughter would undergo a surgery," Tiwari added.

"The doctor took the woman inside the OT and allegedly raped her. Later, Verma asked the woman's mother to take her unconscious daughter home saying that her condition would improve after the surgery," said Tiwari.

"As the girl regained consciousness, she told her mother that the doctor raped her. Following which the victim's mother registered a complaint against the doctor late Monday evening," he added.

While the doctor, who has been booked under section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), is absconding, the victim is being treated at a government hospital, where her condition is stated to be critical.

KUALA LUMPUR — A Malaysian man faces up to 35 years in prison for smuggling 12 people from Myanmar, amid a crackdown on human trafficking by Malaysia after it was labeled one of the world's worst offenders in a US report.
Sahaidi Salleh, a jobless man, pleaded guilty to trafficking nine adults and three children from Burma, said Mohamad Zaidi Che Morad, an immigration official in northern Kelantan state.
Sahaidi's two sons, age 19 and 21, and their maid pleaded not guilty and are expected to face trial, he said.
Trafficking in children carries a minimum jail term of three years and maximum term of 20 years. Smuggling adults is punishable by up to 15 years in jail. It is up to the judge whether the sentences are run concurrently or not.
Sahaidi was jailed pending sentencing on September 15, Mohamad Zaidi said. The three others were also detained after failing to post bail of 11,000 ringgit ($3,100) each, he said.
The Burmese nationals were smuggled into the country across a river from neighboring Thailand, Mohamad Zaidi said.
The group, including five ethnic Rohingyas and two ethnic Chin, were seized from Sahaidi's house in Kelantan on Aug. 9 and are now staying in a shelter. They will not be charged with entering Malaysia illegally because they are considered victims of human trafficking, Mohamad Zaidi said. The youngest child is 2.
Mohamad Zaidi said investigations revealed they paid up to 2,000 ringgit ($570) each for the journey from Burma to Malaysia. Saihaidi received up to 500 ringgit ($141) per person, he said.
"We're still trying to investigate. It's a wide connection ... it's transnational," Mohamad Zaidi said, adding it was difficult to go after human traffickers in Thailand and Burma. He said the network also involved express bus operators in Malaysia who ferry the illegal migrants.
The United States is reviewing Malaysia's efforts to fight human trafficking until October after giving it a low ranking in this year's "Trafficking in Persons Report."
Activists estimate that hundreds of thousands of people from Burma live illegally in Malaysia in addition to 140,000 legal Burmese migrant workers. The United Nations refugee agency recognizes 43,500 as refugees. Many are Chin and Rohingya, who face discrimination at home because of their ethnicity and religion.

"The fact that reported sightings of UFOs rocketed in 1996 - the year that Men In Black was released - should tell you all you need to know about the British public, the veracity of their sightings and the likelihood of men from Mars.

"Just show me one UFO that I can walk around, discuss technical details with its pilot, see flying etc. Just one!"

Evidence?

Finding proof is a fruitless task according to fripono: "Hard evidence for UFOs is non-existent. Sadly, I guess people just desperately want to believe that aliens exist.

"The thought that we are alone in this big old universe is just too terrifying to contemplate."

However, Midnight--Toker reckons a leap of faith is required when it comes to little green men: "Hard evidence that God exists is non-existent yet billions of people believe that he does. What's the difference?"

"What gets me is why these aliens travel billions of light years to abduct someone who is about as believable as the man who claims that Elvis is working in their local chip shop.

"Why is it they never kidnap a leading scientist?"

GGee67 thinks he has an explanation for strange sightings: "Floating orbs are normally Chinese lanterns. I have watched a dozen of them float across the sky and yes, it was spooky, but I am sure that is what it was.

"Strange ... most of these alien sightings occur on the way home after a night out!"

One MY Sun user had a close encounter during an evening at home:

"I was out in my back garden looking out for meteor showers when I noticed bright orange orbs moving across the sky from West to East," writes kevinrimmer.

"They were moving slowly all on the same path, then slowly disappeared. There were about six or seven of them in total."

With so many sightings making the headlines, Geeman2008 feels we should be open minded: "There is life out there, it's mathematics pure and simply put.

"There are thousands of eyewitness accounts from pilots, military officers and policemen."

Police theorize the official was beaten to death for rescuing trafficked women from bars and nightclubs

The murder on Aug. 7 in Kuala Lumpur of a senior Filipino social welfare attaché, Finardo Cabilao, once again points up Malaysia's ugly reputation as a destination, source and transit country for women and children trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and men, women, and children as forced laborers.

The country remains on the US Department of State's Watch List for human trafficking amid allegations of complicity by government officials although earlier this month US Ambassador James R Kieth said Washington was "encouraged by Malaysia's energetic efforts to address human trafficking. The ministry managing women and families, he said, "is leading the efforts to deal with those who victimise women. I think Malaysia is doing a great deal to educate the public, raid those sites where women are being victimised, and repatriate the women after separating them from criminals and sheltering them before they are sent home," he said.

Investigators believe that Cabilao, 51, who was found bludgeoned to death a week ago in his flat in Kuala Lumpur, may have been killed by a trafficking syndicate for his work in coordinating with Malaysian authorities for raids and rescue operations in bars and nightclubs, the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs said Sunday in Manila.

The Philippine official had been beaten repeatedly with blunt objects by more than one attacker, Malaysian news media reported. Police ruled out robbery as a motive as Cabilao's cash and valuables including his camera and laptop were left behind by the murderers. Witnesses said they had heard a heated argument in his apartment the day he was killed.

Philippine senior state prosecutor Severino Gana told The Straits Times that the day before the murder he had briefly met with Cabilao at the embassy in Kuala Lumpur to discuss a case in which the Philippines Department of Justice's Task Force on people trafficking had arranged for two Filipino witnesses to testify. Cabilao, Gana said, had recently organized the rescue of several Filipinas, which may have made him the target of trafficking syndicates.

In an explosive report dated April 2, 2009, the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations reported that Burmese migrants are often arrested by Malaysian authorities, have their personal belonging confiscated and kept by the officials, and delivered to human traffickers who issue ransom demands on an individual basis. Those unable to pay are sold to a variety of business interests ranging from fishing boats to brothels.

"Allegations received by the committee from migrants, spanning years of personal experience, are similar to reports issued by NGOs and human rights activists," the committee report said. "Migrants state that freedom is possible only once money demands are met. Specific payment procedures are outlined, which reportedly include bank accounts in Kuala Lumpur to which money should be transferred."

Malaysian government officials, the report said, "continually deny such allegations. As reported recently in the Malaysia Star, ‘‘(former) Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar also denied claims that thousands of illegal foreigners held at detention centres were ‘‘being sold off'' to human trafficking syndicates. ‘I take offence with the allegation because neither the Malaysian Government nor its officials make money by selling people.' ''

Malaysia, according to the US State Department's 2008 Report on Human Trafficking, "is a destination country for migrants from a wide range of countries including Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand, the People's Republic of China (P.R.C.), the Philippines, Burma, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Vietnam to work." Some, the report said, "are subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude by Malaysian employers in the domestic, agricultural, construction, plantation, and industrial sectors. Some migrant workers are victimized by their employers, employment agents, or traffickers that supply migrant laborers and victims of sex trafficking."

Some women recruited as female domestics from Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma, Mongolia, and China have been forced into the sex trade after being deceived with promises of jobs or after running away from abusive employers, the report continued. Individual employment agents allegedly sold women and girls into brothels, karaoke bars, or passed them to sex traffickers.

In its 2008 report, the US government did note that while Malaysia doesn't comply with the minimum standards, "it is making significant efforts to do so." The country, the report said, was placed on the Tier 2 Watch List for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts from the previous year to tackle its large and multidimensional trafficking problem, including its forced labor problem. The government, the report said, enacted comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation in July 0f 2007 and has worked to train key law enforcement officers and social workers.

However, the report said, the government, "did not yet take action against exploitative employers or labor traffickers during the reporting period. The government has not yet widely implemented mechanisms to screen victims of trafficking from vulnerable groups." Despite ample reporting by non-governmental organizations of trafficking, the report said, "Malaysian authorities did not respond with criminal investigations or prosecutions regarding the alleged offenses."

The government and the United Malays National Organisation, the lead ethnic party, continues to paint itself as a strongly religious country. Nonetheless, "there were no visible measures taken by the government to reduce demand for commercial sex or to raise consciousness about child sex tourism," the report said.
"It is unfair to put us back on the list as we are doing our best," Malaysian Deputy Home Minister Abu Seman Yusop told reporters in 2007. "We will have to consider our next action in opposing the re-listing of our country on the blacklist," he added.

Abu Seman said the Malaysian government did not condone human trafficking and had taken stern action to deal with the problem, including enacting an anti-human trafficking law in 2007 and setting up a special task force.

Cabilao was a major force in attempting to protect Filipino women in Malaysia, officials in Manila said. He often joined raids by Malaysian police and, according to news media, "Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia Victoriano Lecaros said Cabilao was often restrained by co-workers from going too far in his advocacies or doing too much in his work for distressed Filipinas.

Kuala Lumpur CID chief Ku Chin Wah told The Straits Times that police were still investigating, and ruled out robbery. He said there were signs of a fight and a quarrel. Ku added that the police knew Cabilao was dealing with Filipino workers, and were investigating all angles, including the human trafficking one.

New Delhi, Aug 17: A Delhi court on Monday convicted four members of the President's Bodyguard for the Buddha Jayanti Park gang rape case.

Hearing the case, at the Patiala House Court, Additional Sessions Judge S.K. Sarvaria held Harpreet Singh, Satyender Singh, Kuldeep Singh and Manish Kumar of the elite President's Bodyguard guilty of gang rape, kidnapping and robbery under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The court said the quantum of punishment would be delivered on August 22.

Of the four convicts, Satender and Harpeet have been convicted of gang rape, abduction and robbery. Though the court acquitted Kuldeep and Manish, of charges of gang rape, they were convicted them for abduction, robbery and common intention.

The victim, a 17-year-old student of the Delhi University, had gone with her friend to the park - which is situated near Rashtrapati Bhavan on October 6, 2003.

The prosecution alleged that Harpreet and Satender raped her while the other two accused, Kuldeep and Manish, kept guard.

The four first roughed up the victim's friend and then took her to a secluded place inside the park before raping her, the prosecution alleged.

Security forces in India might soon be armed with chilli bombs to take on rioters and fight insurgents.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is testing hand grenades stuffed with bhut jolokia or ghost chillies, which were confirmed as the world's hottest by Guinness World Records in 2007.
One seed from the fiery three-inch pepper, found in north east India, can produce intense pain in the mouth for up to half an hour. The DRDO hopes to use these qualities to develop tear gas canisters and hand grenades.
RB Srivastava, chief of the Directorate of Life Sciences in DRDO, said: "The trials have been done for the hand grenades. It gives out such pungent smoke that makes one come out of one's hiding place."
The heat from the weapon chokes the respiratory tract and causes the eyes to water.
Mr Srivastava said: "The war scenario is changing. Low intensity conflict is the norm of the day. The paramilitary forces face the problem of forcing the terrorists out of the hideouts. We wanted to find a non-lethal way to tackle insurgents and the mob during riot control."
The Scoville scale, which measures the piquancy or hotness of a chilli, rated the Bhut Jolokia peppers in number of Scoville heat units (SHU).
Bell peppers measure zero SHUs, while jalapeno peppers were rated at 2,500-8,000 SHUs. The world's hottest chilli measured over a million SHUs. Bhut jolokia might also find its way into soldiers' rations to help keep them warm.
"We want to see the feasibility of the chillies in the diet for soldiers in high altitude areas," Mr Srivastava told Indian newspaper the Hindustan Times.
The hot pepper is being used to scare away elephants that wander into fields hoping for an easy meal.

BY JULIE BROWN
RYE BROOK, N.Y. -- This needle-shaped suburb on the outskirts of New York City has had just a handful of homicides since becoming a village in 1982.
But now they have a doozy -- a steamy saga of wealth, privilege, kinky sex games, marital disharmony, family dysfunction and vodou, shipped straight from the Sunshine State. Not to mention the latest plot twist: The murdered man was having an extramarital affair, multiple law enforcement sources confirm, although no one can say if it had any bearing on his fate.
The victim is Ben Novack Jr., son of the founder of the Fontainebleau and a successful Fort Lauderdale businessman in his own right.
He was found duct-taped and bludgeoned on the morning of July 12 in Suite 452 of the Hilton Rye Brook, where he was overseeing an Amway convention. His wife discovered the body.
As police try to unravel who did what and why, Novack's widow and her daughter have feuded over control of the estate, thought to be worth as much as $10 million, and allegedly engaged in a crowbar-swinging brawl that brought out the Fort Lauderdale police.
It's enough to make a victim spin in his grave, except Novack has yet to be interred. With his money tied up in litigation, Novack's corpse lies unclaimed at the morgue more than a month after his murder.
``This is a complicated case,'' said Rye Brook Police Chief Gregory Austin, leader of 28 sworn officers.
Austin, who refuses to discuss details of the investigation, has launched a website, www.bennovackjr.com, hoping it will attract tips.FORTUNATE SON Novack, 53, was the son of Miami Beach royalty -- hotelier Ben Novack Sr., who throughout the '50s and '60s controlled politicians, hobnobbed with underworld figures and built the legendary Fontainebleau, then one of the most lavish hotels in the world. Ben Jr. grew up surrounded by luxury, rubbing elbows with presidents and movie stars, eating lobster under $15,000 chandeliers and trick-or-treating from a limo.
His late father would eventually lose control of the hotel, but Ben Jr. carved out a successful career as a convention planner. He was in Rye Brook the weekend of July 12 to attend a convention he had organized at the Hilton. Accompanying him: His 53-year-old wife, Narcy, originally from Uruguay, and his 33-year-old stepdaughter, May Abad, who helped out with the business.
Narcy and May had a tempestuous mother-daughter relationship, feuding for years. But Abad and others say she and her stepfather, whom she called ``Dad,'' were close.
``He was everything to me,'' Abad said in an interview. ``I never went to my mother for anything. He was the one who always helped me out.''
Narcy -- who did not wish to comment except through her lawyer -- and her husband also had their ups and downs. In 2002, Novack told police he was robbed at their Fort Lauderdale home by home invaders, who left him gagged and bound in a leather chair.
The group cleaned out his safe, stole business documents, cash and other belongings that Novack claimed were worth $1 million.
Novack told police the band of home invaders included his wife.
According to a police report, two days after the incident, Narcy admitted to planning the caper and to tying up her husband. But she insisted he participate willingly -- as part of a sex game in which they each tied each other up.
In the end no one was prosecuted and they remained a couple.
Relatives and business associates say Narcy was involved in stormy confrontations with her husband that could be heard through closed doors at his business, Convention Concepts Unlimited, and that she sometimes dabbled in vodou, lighting black candles to enhance the mood.
Regarding the recent affair, May Abad said she knew of it, and that it had grown to the point that her stepfather had helped set up the woman in a place to live, bought her furniture and even planned to meet her family.
``My mother was very jealous. He had a girlfriend on the side, close to [age] 40,'' Abad said. ``I haven't even met her. It's a part of my dad's life I didn't know about until recently.''
Abad said she was working in the customer service end of her stepfather's business at the time of his death. She admitted he was often gruff and difficult with customers, and said she would have to smooth things over. She said he also made her privy to his financial affairs and legal advisors, telling her he wanted her to help run the business after he retired.
Untrue, said Howard Tanner, Narcy's lawyer, who denied that Abad had any significant knowledge of her father's business or associates, and described her as a part-time clerk.
``May Abad was not involved with the company in a way that would allow her to make that type of assessment of anything. She would help out with company affairs on a sporadic basis,'' Tanner said.
The weekend of Novack's murder started badly before it got worse, according to Abad. They were overbooked: almost 2,000 guests for the 450-room hotel. Abad said hotel employees did their best to accommodate the swelling crowd of guests, who lined up at the door and wound their way out into the parking lot.
Abad said she spent the morning of July 12 helping troubleshoot problems.BOUND, DUCT-TAPED According to court documents, Narcy Novack told police her husband was asleep when she left her room around 7 a.m. to attend the convention. Shortly before 8 a.m., she returned to her hotel room where she found her husband dead, face down on the floor with duct tape over his face, and his legs and hands bound behind his back.
Police Chief Austin was on a family vacation in Maine when he got the call the morning of July 12.
Police immediately called for backup and guests at the hotel described the scene as a ``frenzy.'' But by the time the vacationing Austin arrived hours later, the scene was orderly, police were conducting interviews and guests were calm.
Upstairs, in Suite 452, Narcy Novack was screaming ``He's dead! He's dead!'' and throwing herself on the floor, according to Abad, who was in the parlor at the time.
Abad was present when her mother took a police lie detector test the day after the murder. She said her mother failed the test (which is one session of questions asked several consecutive times). ``She flunked it five times,'' Abad said. In court papers, police said that the results of her test showed ``deception.''
``It was a simple test, they asked the same four or five questions about five times: Did you kill Ben Novack? Do you know who killed your husband? Where were you when it happened? Things like that,'' Abad said.
At first her mother was cooperative, but as the session wore on, Abad said her mother began to squirm her chair and grumbled that she felt she was being attacked by police.
``She kept saying `this is ridiculous, I'm supposed to be mourning my husband' and she kept getting angry,'' Abad said.
Tanner countered that it was highly inappropriate to have Abad present for the test, which is inadmissible in the state of New York, but is used as an investigative tool.
``I can only say that I'm troubled by what May's agenda could possibly be . . . If she had credible evidence then I'm sure that evidence is being investigated by police.''
Meantime, friends find it ironic and sad that the man who was raised in such a glorious hotel as the Fontainebleau died on the floor of a relatively nondescript inn.
In the weeks since the murder, Abad has successfully frozen her stepfather's assets in court and also blocked her mother from being named executrix of his will.
According to recent published reports, Novack's estate lawyer, Carl Schuster, said it would be inappropriate for Narcy Novack to act as executor since she is considered a ``person of interest'' in his client's murder. So too is May Abad, as well as everyone who was in the hotel.
Another source of contention: how Ben Novack wished to be laid to rest. His body is still at the Westchester County morgue. Family members said the will indicates he wanted to be buried with his father in the family mausoleum in Queens, N.Y.
But Abad and other family members say that his wife is considering cremation.
Abad said money is not the issue; one of her stepfather's best friends has offered to pay for it, and she said a New York rabbi also offered to help.
``The method of his burial issue is of concern to Narcy,'' Tanner said. ``It's been held up and now it's for the courts to decide.''
He indicated that while the will may state one thing ``there may be an issue whether he expressed orally, things that he expressed that haven't been decided.''
To add to the drama, Narcy Novack and her daughter apparently had a physical confrontation at the Novacks' estate. Narcy wanted her daughter off the property. Police have said Abad often stayed in a cottage on the estate, located on Delmar Place. Abad claims her mother struck her with a crowbar. And Abad admits that she and a niece she didn't know also got into a slapping match.
Police were called. Fort Lauderdale police spokesman Frank Sousa described the event as ``nothing'' and said there is no police report or investigation on the incident. But Tanner and Abad disputed this, saying that an investigation is under way, a report has been taken and charges may be pressed on either or both sides.

Protestors simulate waterboarding at a demonstration against the act. Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Pres

Waterboarding is a centuries-old practice used to coerce prisoners during interrogations by using water to cut off oxygen and to create both the feeling and fear of drowning. It was approved by the Justice Department under President George W. Bush for use by the Central Intelligence Agency on so-called "high value'' terrorism suspects, then barred by President Obama on his second day in office.
During the Bush administration, waterboarding came to serve as shorthand for a broader debate about the legality of methods being used to interrogate terrorism suspects. Questions about whether the technique constituted torture played a central role in confirmation hearings in the fall of 2007 for former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, who refused to describe waterboarding as torture. By contrast, Mr. Obama's attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., flatly stated during his confirmation hearings in January 2009 that "waterboarding is torture.''
"We prosecuted our own soldiers for using it in Vietnam," he said.
The executive orders issued by Mr. Obama after taking office reversed the most disputed counterterrorism policies of the Bush administration. Among Mr. Obama's actions was to require that all interrogations follow the noncoercive methods of the Army Field Manual. He also directed his cabinet to formulate new policies on detaining and interrogating terror suspects.
The immediate practical impact of the orders was limited, in part because military interrogators have been required by law to abide by the Army Field Manual since 2005, and the C.I.A. apparently has not used waterboarding since 2003.
The goal of waterboarding, which has been used in interrogations at least since the time of the Spanish Inquisition, is to create the sensation of drowning without causing death. The subject is strapped to an inclined board, immobilized with his head positioned lower than his feet. In some cases, a piece of cloth or cellophane is placed over the subjects face and water is repeatedly poured over it, triggering a gag reflex and choking the subject. In other cases, the subject's head is submerged under water or his mouth is forced open and water is poured down his throat.
Waterboarding was one of a number of coercive interrogation techniques adapted by the C.I.A. from a military program meant to train personnel to endure brutal questioning of the kind used by the Soviet Union and its allies. Testifying before a House subcommittee on Nov. 8, 2007, Malcolm Wrightson Nance, a former Navy instructor in prisoner of war and terrorist hostage survival programs, explained that he experienced waterboarding while being trained and that he had been involved in the waterboarding of hundreds of other trainees. Mr. Nance said the experience was slow-motion suffocation with water overpowering your gag reflex. Soon, he said, the throat opens and allows pint after pint of water to involuntarily fill your lungs. Unless the subject is allowed to expel the water, the result would be death by suffocation.
After the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, the Bush administration issued legal opinions that gave the C.I.A. more latitude in its interrogation methods than the military had, prohibiting only measures that could be defined as torture. A list of approved tactics included waterboarding.
In April 2009, the Obama administration released the series of opinions.The memos include what in effect are lengthy excerpts from the agency's interrogation manual, laying out with precision how each method was to be used. Waterboarding, for example, involved strapping a prisoner to a gurney inclined at an angle of "10 to 15 degrees" and pouring water over a cloth covering his nose and mouth "from a height of approximately 6 to 18 inches" for no more than 40 seconds at a time.
But a footnote to a 2005 memo made it clear that the rules were not always followed. Waterboarding was used "with far greater frequency than initially indicated" and with "large volumes of water" rather than the small quantities in the rules, one memo says, citing a 2004 report by the C.I.A.'s inspector general.
As the memos were released, Mr. Obama made clear that C.I.A. operatives would not be prosecuted for the use of authorized techniques. But Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said the memos were further proof that a sweeping, independent investigation was needed into the use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques.
In May 2009 a furor erupted over what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knew about waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods that the Bush administration authorized for use on terror detainees. Congressional Republicans accused Democrats of complicity in the approval of the brutal interrogations, citing newly declassified C.I.A. records that showed briefings, starting in 2002, for some top Democrats on waterboarding and other methods.
At a tense press conference on May 14, Ms. Pelosi acknowledged that she had learned in 2003 that the C.I.A. had subjected suspects to waterboarding, but she asserted that the agency had misled Congress about its techniques.
The C.I.A. said that agency records show that Ms. Pelosi took part in a Sept. 4, 2002, briefing on interrogations. A recently released agency account says the briefing included discussion of techniques that "had been used" on Abu Zubaydah, whom Bush administration officials had portrayed as a Qaeda leader. (In April 2009, the release of a 2005 Justice Department legal memorandum revealed that C.I.A. interrogators used waterboarding at least 83 times against him in August 2002.)
That briefing was the only one that Ms. Pelosi attended in person and she maintains that the only mention of waterboarding during the session was that while it was deemed to be legal, the technique was not being used. Ms. Pelosi blamed the dispute on Republicans, saying they are trying to shift attention from those who authorized the interrogations and other tactics now found to be questionable.

Beginning with the infamous Mary Kay Letourneau case in 1995, Americans have been fascinated with female teachers who cross the line and have sexual relationships with their students.

According to an AP study, between 2001 and 2005, 2,570 educators had their teaching credentials revoked, denied, surrendered or sanctioned following allegations of sexual misconduct. While only ten percent of those teachers were women, female teachers who have slept with their students receive the lion's share of media attention.

We decided to see just how much attention has been paid. Looking at search trends, news reports, and blogosphere chatter, we determined the fifty most infamous female teacher sex scandals. We've compiled the list below, hoping to shed light on a growing concern within our education system.

A notorious gangster involved in banditry and other crimes has been killed by police in the southern city of Karachi, officials say.

Rahman Baloch had more than 100 criminal cases lodged against him and a reward of 5m rupees ($105,000) on his head, according to the police.
He was killed along with three accomplices, the police said.
He operated in the city's Lyari district, a vast and densely-populated area where crime levels run high.
Rahman Baloch was also known as Rahman Dacoit [Bandit] in the Lyari area.
The police said Mr Baloch and his accomplices, who were travelling in a car, were killed when they opened fire on a police patrol.
The police retaliated, leading to the killings. Police said that Mr Baloch had escaped from custody a number of times in the past.
But there have been protests in the Lyari and Golimar areas of Karachi against Mr Baloch's killing. Posters have been put up in the area expressing unhappiness about the deaths.
Correspondents say Mr Baloch was trying to position himself as a politician after the formation of the new government in Pakistan's southern Sindh province.
He had joined a number of peace committees formed to cut down crime in the area.
Last year, Pakistan's new government promised to improve law and order in Karachi, the country's biggest city and its financial capital.
Hundreds of people, including gangsters, residents and policemen have been killed in turf wars between rival gangs.

A carer at a former children's home in Jersey was a "persistent sexual bully" who repeatedly abused children in his care, a court has heard.

Gordon Wateridge, 78, used his job at the Haut de la Garenne home to touch teenage girls in a sexual manner, Jersey's Royal Court was told.
He is charged with 19 counts of indecent assault relating to five victims between 1970 and 1974.
Mr Wateridge, who lives in the parish of St Clement, denies the charges.
He is also charged with one count of assault against a 12 or 13-year-old boy and one count of incitement to indecent assault against a 12 or 13-year-old girl.
The court was told he would grope girls' breasts, kiss them on the neck and, in one instance, forced his hand inside an alleged victim's underwear.
The alleged attacks led to children at the home nicknaming Mr Wateridge "The Perv", the jury was told. 'Bear hugs'
Opening the case for the prosecution, Stephen Baker said Mr Wateridge had worked as a house parent at the children's home from 1970 to 1974.
He said: "It is the prosecution case that Mr Wateridge abused that position of responsibility in respect of the children in his care named in the indictment. He was a bully and he used his position of authority to touch girls in his care in a sexual fashion.
"As you hear the evidence, you may conclude that he was a persistent sexual bully, frequently touching young teenage girls in a sexual manner."
As he opened the case, Mr Baker advised the jury to ignore "lurid" reporting in the press about Haut de la Garenne.

He made out that everything was a joke but he really was not very nice to anyone

Alleged victim

Mr Baker said Mr Wateridge would use his strength to overpower the girls by giving them inappropriate "bear hugs".
On other occasions he would sit on a snooker table at the home, grab girls walking past and pull them towards him.
The court heard he would place his mouth on the girl's neck and then allegedly grope the victim.
One of the alleged victims told the court that she had been left feeling "dirty" after being groped by him.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is now 53 and revealed girls at the home referred to Wateridge as "Perv".
She said: "He made out that everything was a joke but he really was not very nice to anyone."
"He would do things like smacking your bottom, grabbing you and giving you bear-hugs. It was all very impersonal."
She added: "When he grabbed you from behind, he would more often than not touch your breasts in some way."
When asked how she felt at the time about it, she replied: "It made me feel dirty, to be honest."
Defence counsel Michael Preston suggested the woman did not complain at the time because it had not happened.
"The reason that I didn't complain was because it happened to everyone and I thought it was normal," she replied.
Mr Wateridge, who was born in Croydon, south London, lived in a flat at the home with his wife and two children at the time of the alleged offences, the court was told.
The trial continues.

NEW DELHI: Himanshu Jetly could kill for a chance to participate in a reality show. And he allegedly did. The 20-year-old aspiring model has been

Himanshu Jetly (TOI Photo)

arrested on the charge of murdering his friend, Veerpal Kaur Gill, 24, who refused to lend him money for upgrading his portfolio.

Gill, an assistant project engineer with a leading software firm in Okhla, was found dead at her J-block, Kalkaji residence in in south Delhi on July 30. Claiming to have solved the murder, DCP (southeast) Shalini Singh said Jetly killed Gill because he was afraid she would report him to the police as he had beaten her up with a rod for not lending him the money.

Police said Jetly then splurged with Gill's debit card. ``He withdrew Rs 15,000 on the day of the murder, took his girlfriend to a movie, had dinner with her and bought her an expensive handbag. Another Rs 15,000 was withdrawn in two instalments at Ludhiana,'' said Singh.

Jetly was desperate to get a new, expensive portfolio as he had been told that his chances of figuring in a reality show hinged on it. The Ludhiana lad had shifted to Delhi last year to pursue his dream of a career in modelling.

``His only goal was to participate in a reality show and cement his place as a leading model. Jetly invested a lot of money and shifted to the capital around September last year. He got himself enrolled with the one of the city's biggest model grooming institutes at Kalkaji. He also began contacting leading photographers to get his portfolio made,'' said B S Rana, a senior investigating officer.

According to the cops, Jetly knew Gill from Ludhiana where she often visited the Jetly residence as a friend of his elder brother. ``His brother left for New Zealand and Gill shifted to Delhi one-and-a-half years ago.
When Jetly decided to come to Delhi, his father had contacted Gill and pleaded that he be allowed to stay with her. The accused spent a month in her house before shifting to his cousin's at Govindpuri,'' Rana said.

Jetly, however, kept visiting Gill. ``Most of these visits turned out to be requests for financial help,'' the officer said. After his training, Gill was told that his portfolio was not up to the mark. But, by this time, he was broke.

``He was asked by his cousin's landlord to vacate the house as he did not like Jetly's girlfriend frequenting the place. It was then that Jetly moved to cheaper accommodation in Kalkaji - two blocks away from Gill,'' added an officer.

On July 26, he borrowed a SIM from Gill after the mobile service provider blocked his number for non-payment. On July 28, Jetly came back to the victim on the pretext of returning the SIM. ``He asked her to lend him a big sum of money. When Gill refused, they had an argument. Jetly picked up an iron rod and beat her with it. Unable to bear the pain, Gill handed him her debit card and even gave the pin number,'' DCP Singh said.

According to Singh, Jetly feared that he would be reported to the police. ``He picked up a quilt and threw it on her face trying to smother her. In the process, he threw himself on her, leading to her instant death,'' she said.

The accused then took Gill's laptop, ipod and the debit card, and left. He began calling up friends to see if the news of the murder had been flashed in the media. Finally, the body was discover on July 30 after foul smell started coming from Gill's room. When police started probing the case, Jetly fled to Ludhiana.

``He dumped the stolen goods with friends in Ludhiana and sent his family away. He then returned to Delhi to pursue his modelling aspirations,'' said an officer. The Kalkaji police arrested him on Wednesday from Alakananda near CR Park.

``We began investigations and called all the victim's friends for questioning. Jetly did not turn up. One of her friends mentioned that she had spoken to the deceased on July 28 morning. Gill told her that Jetly had come to return the SIM. We sent teams on his trail and finally nabbed him on Wednesday,'' said Singh.

Jetly's father, a contractor with Indian Oil Corporation, had recently lost a big contract and told his son that he had no money to spare.

In this undated photo made available Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009 on George Sodini's blog, http://georgesodini.com/20090804.htm, George Sodini is shown. A person close to the Allegheny County coroner's office says the gunman in the fitness center shootings was George Sodini who lived in Carnegie, Pa., just a few miles from the health club. In a Web site posted under his name, Sodini wrote rambling messages about his hatred of women and how he was tired of being rejected by them. He ended by writing, "Death Lives!" (AP Photo/http://georgesodini.com/20090804.htm)

BRIDGEVILLE, Pa. — A man who sprayed bullets into a fitness class filled with women, killing three and then himself, apparently kept a Web page in which he wrote about years of rejection by women and an earlier plan for violence at the gym in which he said he "chickened out."
Neighbors described 48-year-old George Sodini, who worked in a law firm's finance department, as anti-social, and the Web page in his name showcased a resume setting forth his credentials as an unhappy loner. It listed his date of death – Aug. 4, 2009 – and his status of "Never married."
He complained of not having a girlfriend since 1984, not having a date since May 2008 and not having sex for 19 years.
"Women just don't like me. There are 30 million desirable women in the US (my estimate) and I cannot find one," he wrote. The page ended with the words "Death Lives!
On Tuesday night, the gunman walked into the fitness center wearing workout gear and a headband, entered a "Latin impact" dance aerobics class and placed a duffel bag on the ground. He rooted around in the bag for a moment, turned off the lights, took out at least two guns and started shooting.
Three women were killed and nine people were injured. Police say he may have fired as many as 52 shots before turning the gun on himself and committing suicide.
"He walked right into the room where the shootings occurred as if he knew exactly where he was going," Allegheny County police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said. "I think he went in with the idea of doing what he did."
Authorities on Wednesday identified the gunman as Sodini, of nearby Scott Township. The three women who died were Heidi Overmier, 46, of Carnegie; Elizabeth Gannon, 49, of Pittsburgh; and Jody Billingsley, 38, of Mount Lebanon.

The 4,610-word Web page, on a domain registered in Sodini's name, appeared to be a nine-month chronology of his plans to commit the shooting, his decision to delay it and the process that led to the eventual carnage at the health club Tuesday. Authorities did not immediately confirm that the site belonged to Sodini, but the elaborate nature of the comments suggested authenticity.
"The biggest problem of all is not having relationships or friends, but not being able to achieve and acquire what I desire in those or many other areas," said an entry dated Sunday. "Everthing stays the same regardless of the effert I put in. If I had control over my life then I would be happier. But for about the past 30 years, I have not."
The Web site's author wrote of planning the attack since at least November, and had tried to do it when the same Tuesday-night dance aerobics class he targeted met on Jan. 6.
"It is 8:45PM: I chickened out!" he wrote. "I brought the loaded guns, everything. Hell!"
A neighbor of Sodini's, Connie Fontanesi, said she was interviewed by county detectives Tuesday evening.
"He was so anti-social we really didn't learn anything personal about him," she said.
Mike Rick, a spokesman for the Pittsburgh law firm of K&L Gates, said the alleged shooter worked as a systems analyst in the firm's accounting and finance department since 1999. The firm was "deeply saddened by last night's events" and offered condolences to the friends and families of the victims, Rick said in a statement Wednesday.
The violence rocked the suburban Pittsburgh town of about 5,300 residents some eight miles southwest of downtown.
Jordan Solomon, 14, of Mount Lebanon, was in the all-female class and told The Associated Press on Wednesday that it started normally, but she thought it weird when a man walked into the class about 15 minutes later. Solomon said the man put a black duffel bag on the ground.
"He had a sweatband on his head. He was shuffling around in (the bag)," Solomon said. "All of a sudden all the lights went out and I turned around, he starting firing. I turned around and I saw him holding a gun."
The man was expressionless, she said, and she didn't hear him say anything.
Solomon said she immediately started to run out of the room and into the parking lot, where she ran into a nearby restaurant and told workers there to call 911.
The gunman fired multiple weapons "indiscriminately" and didn't say anything before unleashing a burst of bullets, Moffatt said. Moffatt said police recovered at least two guns from the scene and a note from the shooter's duffel bag, but he would not say who wrote it.
"I don't think anyone could have stopped him," Moffatt said.
Five of the wounded victims arrived in critical condition at UPMC Mercy Hospital, but three of them were upgraded to serious condition by early Wednesday. Two women remained in fair condition at another Pittsburgh hospital. One victim was treated and released for a shoulder wound and a woman with a bullet wound to the knee remained in stable condition Wednesday.
Loretta Moss, 44, of McDonald, said she was exercising on a treadmill when she heard a popping noise.
"I didn't pay any attention, and the next minute, people were screaming," said Moss, who had come to the gym Tuesday night for the first time in a couple of weeks. She said she then heard more pops.
"There was like a whole spray of them. I'd say about 15 altogether, and then people started screaming and yelling and started running out the building," she said.
"We laid down, and then after the last set of ... gunshots, we got up, and someone said, 'run.'"

A loan shark was branded a "ruthless individual" by the judge who jailed him today.

John Kiely, 36, was sentenced to five years at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court for offences including blackmail and illegal money lending.

Judge Adrian Smith told multi-millionaire Kiely: "It's clear to me you are a ruthless individual who has displayed a high degree of criminal sophistication."

Kiely charged up to 2,437% interest on loans and used an army of enforcers to collect debts owed by poor families on Manchester housing estates, the jury that convicted him last month heard.

One of his victims, Donna Ockerby, 45, claimed she was left fearing for her life and was forced to move to a secret location to escape him.

Kiely was convicted of two counts of blackmail for his actions towards her.

He was also found guilty of one count of acquiring criminal property, two counts of concealing, disguising, converting or transferring criminal property, and two counts of unlawfully failing to give notice of a change in circumstances.

Kiely also admitted, at an earlier hearing, five counts of illegal money lending.

Mrs Ockerby, an auxiliary nurse, borrowed £300 from "Johnny Boy Kiely" to pay for her wedding dress in January 2007 because she was "absolutely desperate", the jury heard.

He dispensed the money from a roll of £20 notes from his black Range Rover, complete with the personalised number plate "B0Y".

Mrs Ockerby said she faced aggressive demands for money when she struggled to repay her debt because her working hours were cut.

On one occasion Kiely turned up unannounced at her semi-detached house and grabbed hold of her. Another time he turned up and banged on her door early in the morning, the court heard.

Mrs Ockerby told the jury she feared for her life when a concrete block was thrown at her window just hours after a debt collector called.

After this incident she moved away from her home in Openshaw, Manchester.

Prosecutor Ben Mills said that Kiely, who has a conviction for assault and comes from the travelling community, made a profit of £2.9 million between October 2003 and his arrest in October last year.

Mr Mills said he began working as an illegal loan shark in 2003, and started the unlicensed money lending company Project Finance UK Ltd two years later because it was more tax-efficient.

He said Kiely set up Millennium Finance Ltd last year, obtaining a licence from the Office of Fair Trading.

But he said Kiely continued to collect money from his unlicensed loans and "recycled" £342,300 through Millennium Finance.

At the time of his arrest last October he estimated he had £800,000 in outstanding loans spread between 900 clients.

His wealth enabled him to pay cash for a £868,650 mock-Tudor seven-bedroom house, complete with turret, in picturesque Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire.

Judge Smith told Kiely he had bypassed the financial regulatory system designed to safeguard his 1,200 borrowers.

He said: "Your victims, because that is what they were, were vulnerable people who were unable to obtain credit elsewhere."

Judge Smith said Kiely failed to provide borrowers with paperwork for loans and charged "punitive rates of interest" and "arbitrary penalties" to customers who fell behind with repayments.

He said Kiely thought Mrs Ockerby was "giving him the runaround" when she fell behind with repayments and left her frightened to death.

Judge Smith said that when Kiely visited her at her home "you put your face so close to hers she thought you were going to headbutt her".

He said Kiely also made a subsequent early morning visit to her home to discuss the loan, adding: "I'm satisfied that you dealt with Donna Ockerby on those two occasions in a chilling, sinister and deliberately menacing way.

"Donna Ockerby has taken this whole episode very badly indeed, particularly as she felt the need to move away from Manchester."

Judge Smith also told Kiely he had recycled the profits he made from illegal money lending into licensed loans and the purchase of his Derbyshire home.

Kiely received two years for acquiring criminal property, 15 months for converting criminal property, 21 months for blackmail, all to be served consecutively, and 12 months for illegal money lending and three months for unlawfully failing to give notice of a change in circumstances, to be served concurrently.

Mrs Ockerby, speaking after the case, branded Kiely a scumbag and said she believed he "was capable of anything".

She warned others to think twice before borrowing money from loan sharks.

Mrs Ockerby said: "These people prey on people's misfortune. If anyone wants to go through the horror that I have been through, then so be it, but their lives will be wrecked.

"There are more people like Kiely out there. People need to be aware.

"You will never get to the end of the last payment. It just goes on and on and on. I have heard of other loan sharks operating in Manchester and I am sure that many people will be forced to use them, especially in the credit crunch.

"But as soon as you have got that money in your hand, then that is that. It is the start of it all and it will never end. That is what people should be wary of."